To Work for Love
by PaperCity7
Summary: The Dragonborn manages to cause a fight with a group of the Thalmor and gets seriously injured. He escapes to a farm outside of Rorikstead and pleads for them to let him stay there until the Thalmor stop searching for him. They agree but now he must work there and suddenly the daughter of the family becomes interested with the new "Farmboy". *REWRITE*
1. Chapter 1

Mason slumped against his horse and breathed out a heavy sigh. It was just another night for him but he would never get used to it. The rain was coming down hard and it was difficult to see anything in the dark that surrounded them.

His Nightingale hood did little to protect him but he was more concerned for Lydia who had nothing on her head. He offered twice that they go home but she refused, saying this was her duty.

"We should start moving again. I'm feeling fine, I promise." She made a weak smile and hopped back on her horse. Her hair was plastered to her face from rain, sweat or maybe even blood. Mason couldn't tell. He looked at her one more time – just to make sure she was fine like she claimed and climbed back on to his horse. His back ached, feeling the need to just press his body against the animal below him and bury his face within its mane. He had no desire of moving from this spot but as he saw Lydia moving ahead, he quickly reached for the reigns and snapped them forward.

"We should have stayed in Riverwood." Mason grumbled to himself, not really caring if Lydia heard him or not. As they led the horses out from the protection of the large tree that they had been hiding under, he felt himself instantly become drenched once more and the wind began to bite and scratch at his face, whispering harsh words into his ear, words he wished would stop.

The more speed they gained, the harsher the rain came down. His body was constantly shaking and he could already feel the liquid dribbling down his bare skin and chest, leaving cool tracks as it went but the two kept going, fearing that if they stopped then so too would their quest.

But Lydia too, looked just as grieved as they came around the many hills that dotted the area, making her stomach lurch every now and then as the horses darted up and then back down, making her want to hack up the little food she had before coming.

"Forget Falkreath, we are going to Rorikstead." Mason suddenly stopped which made Lydia nearly yelp in surprise as she snapped out of her day dreaming. She was surprised that she didn't fall off or loose Mason during her time being zoned out but then she processed what he was saying.

"No, we must continue! We are nearly there!" She yelled over the howling wind but it did little to faze Mason. He just shot her a look but then realised his hood was on.

"Lydia, if we don't get rest I fear that we will not even make it to Falkreath in the morning... Alive that is. I can see the lights of the town just ahead and I will not argue with you over this just so we can both fall over ill for no good reason." He rambled on. Rage filled Lydia but she shut her mouth. For the next half hour that it took them to get there, she had been as silent as death. She was still angry when they got to the Frostfruit Inn. Still angry when he bought her mead and just as furious when she had finally dried off.

She was now sitting next to Erik who had been staring at her for the past hour. She looked over at Mason but he looked half asleep in his chair, a bottle of mead hanging loosely in his hand.

"Why don't you take off that hood? It freaks people out." She called out to him and it obviously startled him because he dropped his bottle. It didn't break but his daze sure did.

"It just freaks you out, Lydia - No one else." He grumbled. Mason wished that Brynjolf was here to back him up. He missed the guild and wanted to get back as soon as possible.

"Actually, it scares me as well." Erik spoke up, awkwardly shifting in his seat. His eyes kept flickering to Lydia and it annoyed Mason to no end. The tension between the two was killing him. Mason felt the need to take their two heads, smack them together and say, "Now you are married!" but things didn't work out like that… As much as he wanted them to.

"You're just saying that because she said it." Mason grumbled but gave up. He took off his hood and rubbed his blue eyes. His blonde hair was matted and he yearned for a bath. Lydia blushed and immediately looked away, only to look at Erik dead in the eyes. He smiled at her but then she looked in the other direction, towards the fire, her hair whipping around in a fluster of brown.

"I heard there was a new ranch opening up near here." Erik spat out, desperate to end the awkward silence. Mason looked up at him between his fingers which were still massaging his head. Ever since they had left, his head was pounding from the loud noises of the storm. He never realised how quiet it was down in the cistern until he came back up and over to Whiterun.

"It's apparently owned by a bunch of Altmer. Suspicious if you ask me." He then took another sip of his mead. Desperate for Lydia to look back at him again but then suddenly there was a weird knocking sound outside and then the door swung open.

Gusts of rain and wind blew in as large dark figures drew near. They quickly shut the door and sprawled out around the place. Mason quickly understood they were the Thalmor by the way the dressed and the height of them all. He looked down at his Amulet of Talos and he immediately began to sweat. This was not a good time to be wearing that. This was not a good time to take off his hood when he had run into these people during the war.

Silently he stood up and kept his head down. Mason motioned Lydia to follow and she quickly scrambled onto her feet, noticing the distressed look in his eyes. They both started walking slowly to their room, leaving behind a confused Erik and bottles of empty mead.

Mason thought they had made it. He thought that there would be no trouble tonight. He reached out for the door but as soon as his hand touched the rough wooden surface somebody clasped their hand down onto his shoulder. It all seemed to happen so slowly to him. Carefully he shrugged off the shoulder and looked around. The elf was smiling at him in a weird sort of way. His head lugged down getting the full view of this "Dragonborn" but his eyes rested on his chest.

On the Amulet of Talos

His eyes came back up again but they didn't share the wicked curiosity they just had held.

This was much, much worse.

**A/N**

**SO I decided to redo this story because it was well… lacking. I kind of gave up on it half way through and just didn't take it seriously anymore but as I was looking back I felt the need to actually do something with it. So here it is! I will be gone from June 27****th**** to July 7****th**** but I will try to edit/update again before that. **

**I obviously didn't change this chapter as much because I liked it more than the others – It was just the later chapters that I had troubles with. **

**Thankya for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

The punch came at him swiftly, almost elegantly. His head whipped back and roughly connected with the door. Mason gasped out in pain but said nothing. Everything was a huge blur after that but he could feel Lydia clutching onto his arm in a desperate attempt to keep him up. This was humiliating.

He was drunk but also incredibly tired from the traveling. Suddenly, another fist came at him and connected to his stomach. He doubled over and closed his eyes. He opened them again and saw the nice, glossy shoes of the tall elf and considered if he should throw up on them or not.

"Is this what you do for a living, just going around punching people?!" Lydia called out at him. The Thalmor shifted his gaze to her. Lydia saw that the Elf also had some type of alcoholic drink in his hand. Probably some wine sweetened to the point where one could gag but she said nothing. All she knew was that Mason was barely standing and was turning a weird pale colour.

Now they had the whole Inn's attention. The large group of Thalmor drew closer, circling around them slowly. Lydia clutched onto Mason's arm for dear life and looked over to Erik for help but he was gone.

"Back off!" She growled, squeezing Mason's arm in hopes that he revive but he just did a low groan in reply.

Mason felt somewhat downgraded, getting protected by a girl wasn't something he really wanted to happen tonight – Even if that girl was Lydia. Snapping out of his thoughts, he heard her screaming, words he was trying to make out through the haze of everything.

"Shout, Mason, shout!" She yelled at him and suddenly the Thalmor group broke out into thunderous laughter which made the pair look up at them.

"Shout? What do you mean, shout? You surely jest. If this is really the Dragonborn then I fear for this land…" The one who punched Mason spoke up and the rest chuckled with him.

All business now, Mason straightened up and took in a long breath. He leaned against the door for support instead of Lydia and focused his gaze on the crowd around them. He could feel himself sway a bit but stood still for the most part.

He took in another big long breath and regained his footing. The whole room went still and everything was quiet. Closing his eyes Mason prepared to yell out and – _Thud!_ He opened them to see a dead Thalmor Knight on the ground, blood pooling out the side of his head.

"Fuck, I'm good." Mason said in a whisper. Didn't even Shout and the guy got knocked over! He laughed to himself but as he took a closer look, squinting his eyes from his drunken hazed mind – he could see that the Thalmor had an arrow lodged into his head.

"Oh." He said depressed. Recomposing himself, He followed everyone's gaze to the other side of the Inn. Over to Erik who was clutching on to his bow so hard that his knuckles were beginning to turn white. He seemed to be in a weird mix of defiance and just out right fear. Sadly, his shaking legs were a dead giveaway to his true emotions.

Maybe Mason shouldn't have urged him to become an adventurer…

It was an awkward silence after that. The Thalmor just stared at their fallen comrade, seeing how the blood slipped into the cracks of the old floor boards. Mason wasn't sure what to do - Run? Shout? Hide? But before he could do any of those things an angry howl went out into the air and a glass sword came rushing at him. He quickly dodged it but slumped against the wall again.

He could feel his adrenaline pumping in and quickly looked up at the Thalmor who were now charging after the trio. The ring around them had broken and now Mason could easily break through.

He grabbed Lydia's hand and started to run through huge group of elves. Everything seemed to slow down as swords and arrows kept streaming by his vision. He looked back at Lydia to make sure she was OK before charging towards the door. He was so close, fingertips brushing the old worn out knob before he instantly stopped, almost making Lydia slam into his body from behind.

He could feel a searing hot pain in his right shoulder and gasped out. Blindly, he reached over towards it, feeling an arrow. He gagged a bit and fell to the ground; everything was one big mash of colours and screams now. He could feel a tug at his frame but then it slowly went away. Mason could hear Lydia screaming at him but he couldn't make out the words.

How was this happening? He didn't even say anything and he managed to get into a fight. Anger slowly started to build up in him and he turned around to face the group. Getting up from the ground was a hard task and some of the Thalmor seemed to be watching him with a weird fascination. Like if they were being taught some new spell or a foreign sword technique.

Closing his eyes once more, he finally let out his Shout. A blue light flushed throughout the tiny Inn as bodies and plates flew everywhere. Mason turned around and quickly swung the door open. He slammed it behind him as soon as he could and heard the countless groans of inside.

Clutching his shoulder, he made his way over to his horse and noticed that Lydia's was gone. He let out a huge sigh of relief. She must have fled with Erik when he got shot. He was overjoyed but felt something else like a pounding ache he couldn't name. Mason was glad for the fact that Lydia was alive with Erik but sad that they both just sort of left him to well… die. It also wasn't the smartest thing to do on his part though. Him shouting could have very well damaged Lydia if she had been in there but between him nearly blacking out and not quite sober, he couldn't think straight while he was in there.

Trying to shrug off that thought, he painfully heaved himself up onto his horse and slumped against it as it set off in a roaring pace.

He could now hear the yelling from the Thalmor behind him and saw that even more arrows were coming at him. They must have recovered from the Shout and were chasing after him. This made Mason's stomach do a flip. He did not want any more Elven arrows in his body and he sure as hell didn't need to be punched again.

Urging his horse to go faster, he could feel the rain come down harder and remembered just how bad it really was out here. It was still night and it was still a pounding thunderstorm but he felt like what was behind him was a whole lot worse.

_A/N Thanks for reading! _


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